mifreprefentations contained in that report, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph) was ftated to have faid on this floor, that the Secretary of State had obferved to the committee of Foreign Relations, that fhould New York or fome other cities on the feaboard be deftroyed by the enemy, it would not materially affect the great interefts of the nation. Sir, the Secretary of State made no fuch obfervation to the committee, nor did the gentleman from Virginia make any fuch statement to the Houfe. The fame gentleman is alfo made to fay that he knew the embargo was not intended as a precurfor of war, thereby conveying the idea, that he had a knowledge of the fecret intentions of others, which were at variance with their profeffions In this refpect injuftice was done to his ftatements, he only faid (to the beft of my recollection) that war was not the neceffary confequence of an embargo.

The gentleman from New York admonishes us that if we go to war, we ought to take the hearts of the people with us. Sir, we all know, that without this nothing effectual can be done. But is this object to be attained by a variable policy, which is to day one thing and tomorrow another? No; convince them by a firm and determined conduct of your intentions, and they will go with you in every extremity, againft any foreign foe with whom you come in collifion.

Sir, every member on this floor muft feel for the fituation of the petitioners; they are fuffering; it is a misfortune that this fhould be the cafe-but certainly it is fome alleviation to reflect, that this facrifice is not made wantonly, but with a view to fecure national independence, individual liberty, and a permanent fecurity for property.

I regret, fir, that I have trefpaffed fo long on the patience of the Houfe in difcharging what I deemed to be my duty. I hope the motion of my colleague will prevail.

Mr. WRIGHT-Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph), in the large range he has taken in this cafe, has paffed in review before us all his objections to the embargo, and arraigned the majority of this Houfe for the adoption of fo ruin. ous a project. He tells us that the embargo forced our feamen into the power of Great Britain at upwards of fifty dollars per month, and that without a very hot prefs in the British ports, where he infinuates they will be left by their American captains, they will be impreffed into the Britilh fervice. The embargo itfelf did not produce this effect, which it was in reality intended to remedy, but the difclofure of the fecret intention of Congrefs to lay it, in which the breath of fufpicion has never implicated me. But if the embargo, or rather the difclofure of its being about to take place, forced our feamen into the power of our enemy, and was therefore objectionable, how can the prefent propofition to export, without reftriction, in an unarmed state, our productions, be fecured from the fame objection? Our fhips that carry our products to market must be manned; and

how, I afk, are these men to be fecured from impreffment ? But, fir, we are charged by the fame gentleman with being governed by certain minifterial prints in our Congreffional meal. fures; that the Aurora, the Democratic Prefs, the Whig, and the Intelligencer, are edited by foreigners who have come here to difturb our repofe by goading us on to war. Sir, I feel a conviction of the impropriety of that fuggeftion, as inapplicable not only to myfelf, but to the whole Houfe. We, fir, have been governed by an honeft zeal to reprefent our conftituents in avenging the wrongs of our country, and a firm conviction of the wifdom and policy of the meafures adopted for that purpose. But I feel it due to thofe printers who cannot be heard in their own defence, to fay that they have juft claims on the gratitude of their adopted country for their patriotic exertions in fupporting the principles of our glorious revolution, and defending the measures of the Executive and Legislative Departments from the abominable flanders of the enemies of our liberties and independence, thofe mifcreant native printers, who have evinced the strongest difpofition to plant daggers in the vitals of the liberties of their native country, under a foreign golden influence, I have no doubt. Sir, I with the Reprefentatives on this floor, elected by the American people, would teft their devotion to their country's caufe, with half the practical patriotifm of these foreign printers; we fhould feel much lefs difficulty in preparing and progreffing to avenge our wrongs. Sir, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bleecker) has told us that he is pleafed with the figns of the times, and that ere long there fhall come a voice from the eaft in the language of thunder, that fhall make itfelf heard from Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Miffiffippi What, fir, does that gentleman expect to alarm Congrefs, and by this threat of civil war to coerce a majority of this Houfe to fubmit to be governed by a minority? If he does, fir, he will find himself miftaken; nor can I believe that fuch a difpofition exifts in the east, to any confiderable extent, any thing the flanders of a Henry, and the predictions and maledictions of the gentleman from NewYork, to the contrary notwitftanding. But, fir, fhould the figns of treafon and civil war difcover themfelves in any quarter of the American empire, I do not believe they will produce that effect; and I can tell that gentleman, that in fuch an event, I have no doubt, the evil would foon be radically cured, by hemp and confifcation; and to affure him of my exertions to effect their immediate application. The gentlemen talk of figns and tokens abroad, and of the influence of the planets. Sir, the archives of our own Houfe, the vote on the bill for the protection of 6257 impreffed American feamen on board the Britifh fhips of war, groaning under a worse than Egyptian bondage, furnifh a ftrong fign of the times, and fhow that a certain portion of the Reprefentatives of the American people are under the influence of a British planet.

MR. BLEECKER faid, that the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Wright) had altogether mifunderftood him. He, (Mr. Bleecker) had no reference to any particular fection of the Union; but faid, that if gentlemen perfevered in their project of going to war within 60 days in the prefent unprepared ftate of the country, the people, in whatever part of the Union they might be, who are to fuffer the privations and calan ities of the war, would foon put down all their measures.

The queftion was then taken, and decided in favor of poftpone.ment of the consideration of the petitions to the 4th day of July.

In Senate.

Debate on the bill concerning the Naval Establishment.

February 28, 1812.

MR. LLOYD-Mr. President, the amendments proposed by the committee to whom this bill has been referred, having been gone through with, I now beg leave to offer a new one by an additional section to the following effect:

"Be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is authorised, to cause to be built as speedily as may be, on the most approved model, frigates, not exceeding dollars be,

36 guns each; and that a sum not exceeding and the same is hereby appropriated for building the said frigates out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated."

It is my intention, sir, to move for 20 new frigates; but the number I have left blank, in order, should the Senate be favorably disposed to an increase of the navy, and disagree with me as to the degree of that increase, they might regulate the number at their pleas

ure.

Sir, I have been induced to offer this amendment from an impulse of duty towards my more immediate constituents, and also from a sense of the obligation imposed upon me, however feebly I may be able to respond it, in the honorable station in which I am placed, to endeavor to the extent of my ability to support the dignity, protect the rights, and advance the best interests of the United States. Sir, I trust the amendment under consideration, if adopted, would have a relation, and a favorable relation, to all these objects.

If it be not the determination of the government to engage in an open, actual, and efficient war; to place the nation in such a complete state of preparation as may avert war, from our state of readi ness to meet it; then the measures of the present session, those of filling up the existing military establishment, and thereby adding to it between six and seven thousand men, that of enlisting a standing army of 25,000 men to serve for five years, unless sooner discharg ed--of providing for the employment of 50,000 volunteers, and of holding in readiness one hundred thousand of the militia, would be not only inexcusable, but nearly treasonable--as they would in such

case, without any adequate object, impose severe and heavy burthens upon the people of the United States, from which, years of the highest degree of prosperity would not relieve them. But, sir, I am bound to believe, that unless redress be obtained, it is the determi nation of the government of the United States to enter into an actual, vigorous, real war, or at any rate, to put the nation into a perfect state of readiness to commence it, should it be necessary; and in either of these cases, an efficient naval force is as indispensable, nay much more indispensable, than a land force.

A few days since there was exhibited to the Senate an account of sales of 380 hogsheads of tobacco, and a parcel of cotton, recently disposed of in the dominions of his majesty the emperor of France, who professes so much affection for the United States, from which it appeared, that the tobacco, which cost with the charges near 20 thousand dollars, was not only totally sunk to the adventurers, but involved them in an additional loss for the pavment of the expenses of near one thousand dollars more-of the cotton, fifteen-sixteenth parts were also sunk. Nor did this arise from a bad state of markets, the hazard of which merchants must always take, for the markets were unprecedently high. The tobacco which could have been bought in the United States from 21 to 5 dollars per cwt. sold at 29 dollars---and the cotton which could have been purchased at 10 cents, sold at 50 cents per pound. The loss arose solely from the perfidy and rapacity of the French government in seizing upon the greater part of both the adventures, under a pretence for the payment of duties, which it shifts ad libitum as suits either its avarice or caprice, or promulgates or withholds as best answers its purposes.

Sir, you will remark that these accounts of sale bear date July 15, only eight days antecedent to the information communicated to the American government by Mr. Serrurier, in his letter to Mr. Monroe of July 23, 1811, in which he states, that "the introduction of tobacco is not prohibited in France---it forms the first object of culture of some of the States of the Union, and his majesty, having an equal interest in the prosperity of all, desires that the relations of commerce should be common to all parts of the federal territory." Yes, sir, this is indisputably the sort of interest, which his majesty is pleased to take in the commerce of the United States, and this the sort of benefit, which he, without doubt, would delight to render common to all parts of the federal territory.

[Continued in No. 33.]

CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER.

No. 33.] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION.

[1811-12.

IN SENATE, February 28, 1812. Debate on the bill concerning a Naval Establishment.

[Mr Lloyd's Speech---Continued from No. 32.]

This information was given in too authentic shape to admit of its being questioned; it came from one of the most respectable mercantile houses in the country, composed of federalists, and was made known to you by an honorable member of the Senate from Maryland, (Mr. Smith) of opposite politics, and who has long in some sort been considered or respected, as the commercial organ of this House, if not of the government. When these facts were stated, the colleague of the gentleman, (Hon. Mr. Reed) with the manly frankness of a soldier-of a man who, in the times which tried men's souls, devoted himself both soul and body to the service of his country-who entered your army at the commencement, and continued in it to the termination of the revolutionary war, with great usefulness to the public, and reputation to himself—with that integrity which charaçterizes him, after giving vent to the honest indignation of his heart, in a philippic against the emperor of France, which I shall not repeat, but which was as well placed as it was justly merited, he asked-" If this was to be the state of your commerce after a war with Great Britain-what in the name of God were you going to war for?" His colleague (Mr. Smith) rose immediately and said, this was not to be a war for commerce, it would be absurd to suppose the nation was now going to war for commerce-commerce had been abandoned long ago; the trade to France was worth nothing; and if the orders in council were off to-morrow, if the same system continued, the trade to France would be worth nothing. This was to be a war for honor; we were now going to fight for our honor!

Yes, sir, part of this is too true---commerce has been abandoned; commerce has been made the scape-goat, on whose back have been piled all the crudities and follies of mistaken theory and visionary speculation, and thus laden, she has been sent adrift into the wilderness to be lacerated by every briar or bramble that could rob her of her coat, or plant a thorn in her carcase. No country on earth, in the same period of time, and under similar circumstances, ever reaped one half the benefits from commerce which have been experienced by the United States. Without adverting to the effect it has had on the extension and embellishment of your populous cities-without adverting to the encouragement it has offered to your agriculture and * Messrs. Robert Gilmore and Sons, of Baltimore. --No. 33.